The NFL announced Tuesday that they have done away with the league-ran rookie symposium and replaced it with a new rookie transition program hosted by each NFL team.

The new format includes each team’s drafted and undrafted rookies for the first time. The switch was designed to ensure each team had a customized orientation program for rookies to adjust to the community and NFL.

Denver, as well as the rest of the AFC, will host their programs June 22-24. The NFC programs are scheduled to run June 20-22.

Teams will be mandated to include core discussions on social responsibility, respect at work, mental health, character and values, and player engagement resources.Read more…

The Tampa Bay Buccaneers — you know, that awesome team that finished the 2014 regular season with a 2-14 record — today revealed a “groundbreaking women’s program” called RED to teach women how to football.

What does that mean, you ask? I’ll let them explain it.

…(women will learn) how to blend personal Buccaneer pride with the latest NFL fashions; as well as tips on sharing their experiences and ideas via social media platforms such as Pinterest … RED members will also have access to exclusive networking events throughout the year designed to encourage interaction while providing practical advice on how to express their love for the Bucs into original design projects, fashion-forward team apparel and creative culinary creations.

via Tampa Bay Buccaneers RED site

That’s right, ladies! This “bold, new movement” will give women “gameday style tips from local area experts” and advice on how to incorporate “passion for the Bucs into other lifestyle interests such as tailgating and home entertaining.”

Because, girls, you know that footballing is all about pairing your tight jersey with the right pumps and making the perfect canapés. You know, football-y stuff. Woo!

Flacco, the new Eli Manning, continues to play his best when it matters most. A pedestrian quarterback during the regular season, he delivered a performance that conjured memories of his magical 2012 Super Bowl lap. Flacco finihsed 18-for-29 for 259 yards and two scores. He had just five completions for 74 yards at halftime before connecting on scores to Torrey Smith and former CSU star Crockett Gillmore, helping the Ravens advance to face the top-seeded New England Patriots.

“You have to play these games to win. You can’t play these games not to lose,” Flacco said. “It’s about playing aggressive football, not having a conscience.”

The Ravens’ Crockett Gillmore celebrates a fourth quarter touchdown with teammate James Hurst against the Pittsburgh Steelers during their AFC Wild Card game at Heinz Field on Jan. 3, 2015 in Pittsburgh. (Jamie Squire, Getty Images)

Terrell Suggs shoved Flacco into position to seal coach John Harbaugh’s seventh playoff road win, matching the NFL record. With the Ravens leading 23-15, Pittsburgh running back Ben Tate, signed earlier in the week, missed a block on the blitz, leaving quarterback Ben Roethlisberger eluding the rush. Roethlisberger escaped and tried to flip a desperate pass to Tate. Tate missed it. Pass protection and catching the ball out of the backfield are strengths of the injured Le’Veon Bell, the play explaining why he was sorely missed.

After Tate couldn’t corral the pass, it landed in linebacker Suggs’ belly. He fell to the ground and pinched the football between his knees, somehow preventing it from touching the soggy Heinz Field turf.

And the forecast is predicting a dropoff into the 20s by kickoff. Weather makes for fun conversation, and it’s combatants are worthy of praise (I am sure there will be beverages to take the edge off in this wind). In Denver, the weather can be a sensitive subject. Not sure if you’ve heard, but Broncos quarterback Peyton Manning is 9-12 when the temperature reads 40 degrees or lower.

Stan Kroenke, right, has to transfer ownership of the Nuggets and Avalanche to his son, Josh, left. (John Leyba, The Denver Post)

Real estate mogul and billionaire Stan Kroenke become the full owner of the NFL’s St. Louis Rams in August of 2010 after purchasing the interest of late owner Georgia Frontiere. To receive the consent of the other NFL owners, however, Kroenke had to agree to turn over control of his other professional sports teams in Denver — the NBA’s Nuggets and the NHL’s Avalanche — to his son, Josh, by the end of the year because of the NFL’s cross-ownership rule. Per the agreement, Kroenke must give up his majority stake in the Nuggets and Avs by December of 2014.

But according to Sports Business Daily on Monday, the league is likely to give him a 12-month extension to transfer ownership to his son. (The NFL allows such in-family transfers if the receiving member has no part in the team’s operation.) The deal would require Kroenke to inform the league by June of 2015 how he plans to divest his teams.Read more…

Rex Ryan apologized to Jets fans for their latest loss, a 31-0 blowout to the Chargers last Sunday. (Stephen Dunn, Getty Images)

Rex Ryan is a defeated man.

Four days before his 1-4 Jets take on one of the NFL’s top offenses in the Broncos, and only three days after his defense was eviscerated by the Chargers, Ryan had to, again, address a room of reporters and tell them why his team has been, well, bad.

Why his offense has struggled to do much of anything behind its young quarterback Geno Smith.

Why this week could be his final audition to keep his job.

Why facing Peyton Manning and his arsenal of weapons is one of the biggest challenges for any coach, let alone one whose job is on the line and whose team is crumbling.

Ryan, typically candid, failed to hide his frustration — or his sarcasm.

“Oh I’m doing great,” he said. “That’s a bit of a stretch. I’m hanging in there.”

Really?

“I think the big thing is obviously we’re not close to where we want to be or expected to be in the win-loss total,” he added. “So that’s a frustrating thing.”Read more…

The Post’s Mark Kiszla does not like rankings. He doesn’t like any form of team rankings. In fact, he’d rather talk about knitting than team rankings. But — BUT — he wants to know if the Seahawks and Broncos are still ranked Nos. 1 and 2 in the league after their Super Bowl XLVIII rematch last Sunday in Seattle.

What do you think? Are Seattle and Denver still tops? If not, which teams are? Ready, set, debate.Read more…

NFL commissioner Roger Goodell announced changes within the league to address domestic violence. (Associated Press file)

After arguably the most embarrassing week for the NFL, commissioner Roger Goodell announced more steps to improve the league’s handling of domestic violence and “related social issues.” In a letter to all teams, Goodell, who is still facing calls for his resignation in the wake of the Ray Rice incident, said that three women will join the league’s front office to “help lead and shape the NFL’s policies and programs relating to domestic violence and sexual assault.”

Per Goodell, Lisa Friel, the former head of the Sex Crimes Prosecution Unit in the New York Count district attorney’s office, will work on the evaluation process of incidents of alleged domestic violence and sexual assault within the league. Jane Randel, the co-founder of NO MORE, a national initiative to raise awareness about domestic violence and sexual assault, and Rita Smith, the former executive director of the National Coalition Against Domestic Violence, will focus on overseeing the development and implementation of the league’s domestic violence policy, as well as building education programs for all NFL personnel. Read more…

NFL commissioner Roger Goodell said that the league had not seen the second video of Ray Rice assaulting his wife. (David Goodman, The Associated Press)

The Ray Rice incident, which first unfolded in February when a video was released of the then Ravens running back dragging his unconscious wife out of a casino elevator, has put considerable heat on the NFL, especially commissioner Roger Goodell.

Five months later, after the league supposedly investigated the issue fully and the case made its way through the legal system, Goodell issued a two-game ban without pay for Rice. He was also entered in June into the league’s “diversion program,” which upon completion could have led to the charges being expunged. But his suspension and required counseling paled in comparison to the penalties of players who smoke marijuana or commit much less severe infractions.

But the good karma was short-lived for Goodell. A week later, a second video, a much more damning video, of Rice punching his then fiancee in the elevator, surfaced. There was no denying Rice’s involvement in the incident now. The Ravens promptly released him and the NFL suspended him indefinitely, but numerous questions were left unanswered.Read more…

Broncos cornerback Chris Harris returns to game action for the first time since Jan. 12 when he tore his left ACL against the Chargers. ( Joe Amon, The Denver Post)

Chris Harris oozes confidence. He turned his torn left ACL into a challenge. Could he come back as quickly as Adrian Peterson? Harris returns Sunday night just eight months after his injury against the Chargers in the playoffs.

The NFL announced on Thursday that it will change the way it penalizes players for domestic violence in the wake of the Ray Rice incident. The Ravens running back was banned only two games after he was caught on camera dragging his then-fiancee out of a casino elevator after knocking her out. The NFL’s two-game ban drew a wave of criticism, especially as players like Josh Gordon have received one-year bans for marijuana use.

In its announcement Thursday, the league said first-time violators of the domestic-violence policy will be suspended for six games, and repeat offenders will banned for life from the league.

With the changes, commissioner Roger Goodell issued a letter to all 32 NFL owners, outlining the new rules and taking responsibility for allowing “our standards to fall below where they should be” with the Rice ruling.

Seventy-five high school players from Ferguson, Mo., reportedly received tickets from the St. Louis Rams for their preseason game against the Packers on Saturday. (Jamie Squire, Getty Images)

More than a week after Michael Brown, an unarmed black teenager, was shot and killed by a police officer in Ferguson, Mo., the unrest in the St. Louis suburb reached its worst level yet. Protesters took to the street again on Sunday to voice their outrage, using gunfire, hurling firebombs, rocks and even Molotov cocktails at police officers, who responded with tear gas, smoke bombs, rubber bullets, and a call for hundreds of more officers in riot gear to join the fight.

The clashes may be in Missouri, but they’ve affected nearly every town in the United States, leading to protests in various cities and making citizens question their own town’s law enforcement strategy as well as ongoing racial tensions around the country.

RENTON, Wash. — Mariners ace Felix Hernandez punches his time card Tuesday night at Safeco Field. He represents the American League’s best pitcher. And yet the Seahawks might talk more about the strike zone than the Mariner’s King.

Although European soccer clubs again beat out American teams for the top three spots on the annual ranking, Arsenal, whose largest shareholder is Stan Kroenke, came in at No. 16 with an estimated value of $1.331 billion. Pat Bowlen’s Broncos took the No. 25 spot, with a valuation of $1.161 billion.

Real Madrid ($3.44 billion), Barcelona ($3.2 billion), Manchester United ($2.81 million) took the top three spots, respectively. The New York Yankees, the top-ranked MLB team, came in a No. 4 ($2.5 billion), while the Cowboys ($2.3 billion) ranked No. 5 as the most valuable NFL franchise.

The Broncos’ win total was placed at 11, tying the Seattle Seahawks for the most. In the AFC West, the Broncos are projected to win three more games than the San Diego Chargers and Kansas City Chiefs and six more than the Oakland Raiders.

The Broncos win total was set a little lower than I thought. I figured it would be set at 11 1/2.

The Las Vegas Hotel & Casino sports book has made the Broncos a 7-point favorite against the Indianapolis Colts in their season-opening game Sunday night, Sept. 7 at Sports Authority Field at Mile High.

Peyton Manning and the Broncos will take on the Colts in their opening game of the season. (Hyoung Chang, The Denver Post)

REGULAR-SEASON SCHEDULE IS SET FOR BRONCOSThe 2014 NFL season will begin with Peyton Manning and the Broncos playing Andrew Luck and the Indianapolis Colts in a prime-time Sunday night game Sept. 7 at Sports Authority Field at Mile High. The Broncos, who will play five of their first seven games at home, will travel to Seattle on Sept. 21 for their first away game, a rematch of Super Bowl XLVIII. See the rest of the Broncos’ 2014 schedule here: dpo.st/RMQCjL

“As if winning consecutive conference titles weren’t already difficult enough, the defending AFC champions will play half of their games against teams that made the playoffs in 2013. The Broncos went 4-0 against the NFC East last season – a feat they are unlikely to repeat against the NFC West in 2014.”

Nicki Jhabvala is a Broncos beat writer for The Denver Post. She was previously the digital news editor for sports. Before arriving in Denver, she spent five years at Sports Illustrated working primarily as its online NBA editor. She also spent two years as a home page editor at the New York Times.